PHILADELPHIA — Six different members of the Cornell men's squash won all three of their respective matches this weekend, spearheading the Big Red's dominating run to the fourth Hoehn Cup title in the program's history.
Cornell (9-7) will conclude the season right where it started the week, ranked ninth in the nation by the College Squash Association. That placed the Big Red as the top seed for the Hoehn Cup, the 'B' flight of the CSA's National Championships — a position that it justified by rolling to victories by a cumulative score of 27-3 over its three opponents in the bracket. The final ranking of ninth will be Cornell's best since 2014, and the Big Red's 2022 Hoehn Cup title joins three others from 1993, 2006 and 2007.
After sweeping 16th-ranked Franklin & Marshall, 9-0, on Friday, the Big Red went on to roll past #12 Dartmouth, 8-1, in Saturday's semifinals. That set up a championship match on Sunday morning against 10th-ranked Rochester — a regional rival that took Cornell to the brink in the squads' regular-season meeting on Feb. 2. Senior
Nikhil Arjunan Iyer clinched that 5-4 victory for the Big Red with a three-game win from the #5 spot.
Sunday's rematch wasn't as closely contested. Junior
Veer Chotrani (#1), senior
Charles Culhane (#4) and freshman
Rohan Iyer (#9) all cruised to three-game victories in the opening wave to stake Cornell to an early 3-0 lead. The clinching point came before the final three matches even hit the court, with sophomore
Nick Robinson winning in four at #7.
Nikhil Arjunan Iyer sealed the victory with a three-game win at #5 in his final collegiate match.
While team play is concluded for the season, the Big Red will send to-be-announced competitors to compete in the 2022 National Collegiate Individual Championships, running March 4-6 in Philadelphia.